Let us see. Is this movie a mystery movie? Yes it is. Is it historical? A bit of it is. Is it a movie where the hero is glorified as a man of many talents, a polymath who can excel at almost anything? Is the eulogy bordering on the North Korean tradition of the ‘Dear Leader’ who was, among other things, the best golfer in the world? Why, yes! But then this is common in all South Indian movies where the hero has become a superstar, the most glaring example is any of the recent Rajnikanth movies in Tamil. Vishnuvardhan is such a mega star in Kannada, and so the introductory scene where every move of his is swooned upon is par for the course in Kannada movies. (Though, Karnataka has fallen prey to this only recently, even Rajkumar at the height of his glory days was not extolled this much within the movies.). Is it also a supernatural story full of Hindu mythological elements? You bet!
The movie starts interestingly enough, where a painting of a dancer is found abandoned by a painter, who takes it home and protects it. This then reaches the house of a dancer called Saraswati and then all hell breaks loose. Strange occurrences, sightings of a gigantic Cobra (I mean the size of the entire house) and such. The family gets scared enough to invite the great sage cum psychic Acharya Ramachandra Shastry. He decides that the ancient curse of Nagavalli has been resurrected and seeks the help of the only man who can deal with it, who is Dr Vijay (Vishnuvardhan).
Vijay lands in the house and without being told, knows all about everyone there, including their past and future. (Please don’t laugh.)
Turns out that Nagavalli was a dancer in Andhra, who was abducted by the evil king Raja Vijaya Rajendra Bahaddur (also Vishnuvardhan, justified by the fact that Dr Vijay, while studying the ancient history “discovers” that the old evil king “looked just like him”)
Nagavalli was in love with a commoner (forget his name) and refuses to acquiesce to the king’s wishes to be his bride, even when she thinks he is dead. When she discovers that he is alive, she plans to meet him secretly but the king finds out and kills her lover. She self immolates, promising gruesome revenge from the other side of death. She then torments people and searches for the king for centuries.
The king, meanwhile, has been chased off by the people and due to his extraordinary powers of concentration and meditation, has managed to live atop a mountain in Ramanagara for centuries.
The story revolves around the final revenge of Nagavalli, who in the house has been the vehicle of her revenge (a very nice twist there, after what looked like a forced introduction of the dead daughter Saraswati as deus ex machina ending)
Dr Vijay is glorified and the story suffers from an inability to decide if it wants to be a mystery film or superhero film or historical or what.
The comedy track sucks, but then most movies have the same problem. If you are put off by that, most Kannada movies are off limit for you!
In spite of it all, it is quite entertaining, and the suspense at the end is really unexpected. If you ignore the ridiculous spectacle of people standing in front of the house debating whether there is a snake in the house when a giant Cobra as big as the house itself is spreading its hood atop the house under their very noses, the movie can entertain.
I would say a 6/10
— Krishna
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